1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a protector for a wire harness, and more particularly relates to a protector adapted to be attached to an outer peripheral surface of the wire harness to be arranged in a motor vehicle and secured to the wire harness by a tape-wrapping manner.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, a wire harness to be arranged in a motor vehicle is often disposed at a place where an interfering member is positioned near an arrangement path of the wire harness or a place where the arrangement path of the wire harness must be restricted. A protector made of a resin material is attached to the outer peripheral surface of the wire harness at such place so as to protect the wire harness from the interfering member and to restrict the arrangement path of the wire harness.
The present applicant has disclosed such a kind of protector in JP 2006-246663 A. As shown in FIG. 15, a protector 1 includes a main body casing 1a having a U-shaped cross section, and a lid 1b for closing an upper opening in the main body casing 1a. Longitudinal opposite ends of the main body casing 1a define inlet and outlet portions for a wire harness W/H. A tape-support tongue piece 1c extends from each of the longitudinal opposite ends of the main body casing 1a. A tape T is wound around the wire harness W/H together with the tape-support tongue pieces 1c to secure the protector 1 to the wire harness W/H by a tape-wrapping manner.
Thus, since the tape-support tongue pieces 1c of the protector 1 is secured to the wire harness W/H by the tape-wrapping manner, the protector 1 can be attached to the wire harness W/H without displacing the protector 1 on the wire harness W/H.
In the above protector 1, the tape-support tongue pieces 1c are provided on only the main body casing 1a in order to surely secure the protector 1 to the wire harness W/H and the tape-support tongue pieces 1c are formed into flat plate-like configuration to increase a contact area between the wire harness W/H and the tape T at a tape-wrapping position.
Consequently, the wire harness W/H is protected from an external interfering member at only a lower side provided with the tape-support tongue pieces 1c on the tape-wrapping position. If a sharp external interfering member is disposed near the tape-wrapping position, for example an upper side position, it is impossible to protect the wire harness W/H only by the tape-wrapping section and there will be a possibility that the wire harness may be broken on account of contact with the external interfering member.
If the main body casing 1a and lid 1b are extended to the tape-wrapping position in order to solve the above problem, the main body casing 1a and lid 1b can surround and protect a whole outer peripheral surface of the wire harness W/H. However, there is a case where an upper wall of the lid 1b cannot be extended on account of a space or an arranging work at a protector arrangement position.